News

After a month of mourning for the eight tourists and the park warden killed by Rwandan rebels in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, authorities reopened the Ugandan park to visitors Apr. 1.

The Uganda Ministry of Tourism, Trade and Industry (MTTI) declared the area safe after security measures were improved. A spokesman also said the government is committed to conserving the rare mountain gorillas that inhabit Bwindi.

Armed guards protected the 12 foreigners, including three Americans, who were the first tourists to visit Bwindi since the Mar. 1 attack by Rwandan rebels.

Sometimes it takes a big, strong father-figure to get an unruly teenage male to shape up.

And that's not just in humans. Take the situation in South Africa's Pilanesberg National Park, where the matriarchal elephants a few years ago welcomed and nurtured the very young male orphans relocated from Kruger National Park.

But once the orphans became teenagers, the female group spurned them. Like unconstrained adolescents of many species, the males, their hormones ablaze, became seriously aggressive, even killing some rhinos.

The number of elephants in Tsavo East and Tsavo West national parks in Kenya continues to grow, but more slowly than in the early 1990s.

A January aerial survey of the two parks plus the Rombo and Galana Ranches and Mkomazi Game Reserve in Tanzania (about 15,400 square miles) yielded a count of 8,100 elephants, up 729 from the 1994 count.

A January aerial survey of the two parks plus the Rombo and Galana Ranches and Mkomazi Game Reserve in Tanzania (about 15,400 square miles) yielded a count of 8,100 elephants, up 729 from the 1994 count helped in the survey.

It was a significant moment for wildlife conservation: Namibia on April 9 was permitted to auction off over 12 tons of elephants tusks, the first legal sale of ivory since a ban halted international trade nine years ago.

Four days later Zimbabwe put 20 tons of ivory on the auction block, and on April 17 Botswana sold nearly 18 tons. How much the sales brought in was not released.

Although culling is again on the table as one of several options for keeping the large and growing elephant population of South Africa's Kruger National Park in check, park officials say no culling will occur before next year at the earliest.

Culling, along with relocation and contraception, are alternatives spelled out in the new management strategy the National Parks Board approved in March to protect the ecosystem of the famed park.